Composer Profile - Activefolio

Musical Instruments 17
musician to operate the valves with the left hand. It is also a common practice for the
player to place the right hand just inside the bell while playing, which smoothes out
the sound somewhat and allows the musician to make fine pitch adjustments. The horn,
though capable of playing very low and very high, finds itself serving as the alto member
of the brass consort much of the time.
The trombone is instantly identifiable because of its
slide, which has a large bend in the tubing that is actually
two overlapping sections. The player can extend the slide,
thereby lengthening the tube and lowering the pitch of
the instrument. Therefore, the trombone needs no valves
to play the entire chromatic scale. The trombone is a tenor
instrument, capable of playing into the alto and bass range.
The design of the trombone has changed relatively little
trombone
since its first appearance in the late Medieval period. Trombones
with a larger bore, called bass trombones, technically
operate in the same range but are designed to make
it easier to play into the bass range. Most bass trombones have one or two valves to
facilitate playing in the extreme low register.
The euphonium and the tuba are of similar design,
with the euphonium operating in the tenor range like the
trombone, and the tuba operating in the bass range. These
instruments have a conical bore, similar to the cornet, which
gives the instrument a warm, rich timbre. Both instruments
are widely used in bands, but the euphonium is quite rare
in orchestras. The tuba is the largest of the brass instruments,
and the lowest pitched as well. With a conical shape
and three to five valves, tubas come in three sizes—the tenor
tuba, the bass tuba and the double-bass or contrabass tuba.
The double-bass tuba is pitched an octave below the tenor
tuba. Tubas are used to give a solid fundamental bottom
sound to chords in an orchestra or band, and due to their
size require a great deal of air to get all the way through
the long, large bores.
The String Family
violin
tuba
The instruments of the string family obviously use vibrating
strings to create their sounds. They are in three main
groups which include the violin consort, the harp and the
guitar category.
The violin consort is the heart and soul of an orchestra.
From highest to lowest pitched instruments, it includes
the violin, the viola, the cello and the bass. All these instruments
use a bow to draw the sound from the instrument,
or are sometimes plucked with the fingers. The bow
is essentially a long stick to which long synthetic filaments
or horsehairs are attached. When drawn across the strings
of the violin the abrasive surface of these strands cause the
strings to vibrate. The bodies of the string family resonate
as the strings are made to vibrate by using the bow or the
fingers. The violin body is the smallest, and uses four separate
strings tightly attached at the top and bottom of the